Outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt intends to sell more than half a million of the company's shares in a transaction that would be worth approximately $335 million today.
In a filing with the SEC, the technology giant disclosed that Schmidt has adopted a stock trading plan where he will sell around 534,000 shares of Google Class A stock in the next year. The company cites portfolio diversification as the primary reason for the sale.
If Schmidt were to sell his shares at today's closing price of $626.77, it would be worth $334.7 million.
While a rather large amount for the vast majority of us, it's still a small fraction of Schmidt's 9.2 million Google shares, which represents 2.9% of Google's outstanding capital stock. After he sells his shares, he will still own 2.7% of Google and hold 9.1% of the company's voting power, thanks to his ownership of Google's Class B common stock.
Schmidt's current ownership stake is worth $5.77 billion, only eclipsed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin's stakes. It's important to note that the Google co-founders are also selling significant portions of their Google shares. In January 2010, an SEC filing revealed that they would each sell 5 million shares over five years, a transaction that would be worth $6.27 billion in total at today's closing price.